Since going viral almost overnight, by now you’ve probably seen the music video starring the who’s who of Australian politics, such as Kevin Rudd, Tony Abbott, Bob Katter, and many more lip-syncing, dancing, and making silly in the name of punk rock.
The clever video for ‘Round and Round’, which currently has more than 76,000 views and counting on YouTube, is the work of the MusicACT Awards-winning Super Best Friends, and more specifically the directorial nous of the Canberra trio’s bassist Matt Roberts.
So how exactly did the Super Best Friends band mate manage to convince a number of high-profile politicians, and even some of the media figures that report on them, to make fools of themselves on camera? And for a song that lampoons the repetitive nature and 24 news cycles of Australian politics, no less? Well, it is almost as simple an answer as the one he gave on Twitter “I asked them”.
When not slugging nuggets of fuzzed-up indie punk with Super Best Friends, Roberts spends his days as an ABC cameraman and sound operator roving the halls of power in his native Canberra.
“Yes, that’s my little secret, I sort of wandered the corridors of Parliament House before and after my shifts, and just asked the question really,” reveals Roberts. “Funnily enough, most of them hadn’t heard that question before and they were more than happy to oblige.”
Interestingly, although the ‘Round and Round’ video has surfaced in the middle of the heated campaign leading up to this September’s Federal election, it was actually “shot and edited over the last two or three months,” according to Roberts. “I pretty much had to shoot it when all the pollies were in Canberra, so the last two or three sitting weeks here in Canberra so I had to run around like crazy and try and convince people to get on board”
The killer idea came to the bassist when he and his bandmates re-recorded the single in a studio in Melbourne in April. “We thought, ‘oh gee, it’d be great if we get some pollies in the film clip…’,” he recalls. “We thought ‘it’s going to be impossible’ and ‘[we] don’t know how it’s going to work’, but yeah, we got Kevin Rudd first up, straight off the bat, and from there it just snow-balled.” “I sort of wandered the corridors of Parliament House before and after my shifts, and just asked the question really.”
In fact Rudd’s key appearance, showing him grinning over a copy of The Daily Telegraph and offering his best desk-bound dance moves, were filmed before the leadership spill that made him Prime Minister. As Roberts pieced together his many shoots, it became clear that diversity was important to the success of the video.
“We wanted to make it across all parties, so we had to try and wrangle a few from the Coalition as well who were a bit more tricky to convince but we got a few in the end,” he explains. Online commentary has already noticed a few omissions from the political karaoke party of ‘Round and Round’, and Roberts confirms that there were a few that turned down his offer.
“I tried to select my targets but I did have some noticeable knockbacks,” he explains. “Obviously the Honourable Peter Garrett would have been a fantastic addition… but he was pretty abrupt that he didn’t want to be a part of it which is fair enough because he’s a big rock god and we’re not.
“That was a bit disappointing… we also had knockbacks from Joe Hockey, Julie Bishop, Christopher Pyne, Stephen Conroy, but in saying that – Tony Abbott was the last guy we shot so if they knew he was going to do it maybe they would have agreed to have done it as well.” In fact the Nickelback-loving Hockey said he’d have considered getting involved if the band used his favourite grunge copyists as the soundtrack, as the Canberra band later revealed.
The other glaring omission was from MP Craig Emerson, of “No Whyalla-No Wipeout” cringe-rap infamy, to which Roberts explains: “It was quite hard to approach Ministers of the day, especially in the last couple of sitting weeks of Parliament in the government, all the ministers were head down, bum up in their work – which is fair enough – and wouldn’t really wanna do the film clip.”
The Independent candidates on the other hand, really wanted to be in the film clip and “were pretty easy to work with because they didn’t have the big parties on their back telling them what to do and what not to do, so they were good fun,” says Roberts. Nick Xenophon, who rocks the bass atop his office desk, and Rob Oakeshott, captured ironing a pair of Bonds dacks (which he provided himself), “were great to work with,” says Roberts.
It was the footage of the Akubra-donning “crazy man” Bob Katter that is perhaps the most bizarre experience – for both audience and filmmaker. “You should see the goof reel,” Roberts notes with a giggle. “Unfortunately that won’t see the light of day, but yeah, Bob Katter is in a world of his own that’s for sure.”
Speaking of the political journalists that also make appearances, collectively representing the likes of Channel 7, Ten, ABC, and Sky News, Roberts explains, “we’re all good mates,” the ABC camera/sound operator working in close proximity in the corridors of power with many of them. “All the TV networks and everyone in the press gallery here at Parliament house all in the one corridor,” he says. “It got to the stage where people were coming up to me saying ‘if you need me to do anything for your film clip, let me know’… I couldn’t fit anyone else in!” “You should see the goof reel! Unfortunately that won’t see the light of day, but yeah, Bob Katter is in a world of his own.”
“Even worse, I had a few guys already shot and edited in and had to go over them because cut or the edit didn’t work, it was a bit hard telling them they ended up on the cutting room floor in the end. That’s the nature of the business I guess,” he adds.
For the most part, everyone was willing to get on board with song, which is “a tongue-in-cheek, satirical look at the 24 hour media cycle and politics, the repetition that goes on,” in the words of the tune’s co-writer; “especially with us, having to stand through full press conferences listening to the same lines being repeated and repeated. It’s just a fun take on that.”
Featuring such lines as, “It’s news but not really… messages well rehearsed,” Roberts says that the stars of the ‘Round and Round’ video enjoyed “having a go at themselves.”
Having recorded and released their Handshake EP late last year and completed their whirlwind 1, 2, 3 Tour at the start of the month, the big question hanging over Super Best Friends now that they have a viral hit on their hand is, what’s next?
“That’s the big question, hopefully we get some momentum with this,” Roberts responds. “We’ve had to go easy on the gigs because of the election campaign and I’m obviously doing my day job chasing the leaders around the country. But no doubt we’ll have a run of shows towards the back-end of the year, hopefully put out another [single].”
“We recorded a few songs with ‘Round and Round’ but it was more like a demo session than a proper recording, so whether we put out another one before the end of the year, we’ll have to wait and see,” he says.
“It’s a bit scary,” Roberts admits, “I’m trying to come up with a film clip idea to top this one,” but despite the hype that’s surrounded the Canberra trio in such a short time thanks to a great idea that was well executed, Matt Roberts – who is part and parcel of the 24 media cycle his band lampoons – is humble about the success of ‘Round and Round’. “I’ll think it’ll all be irrelevant after the election is called and everyone will have forgotten about it,” he concludes with a laugh.
